Chapter V: Introduction (4)

Dr. Alexander Wetmore (1925) says:

The young grow rapidly, and the increase in the length of their
legs is amazing. Until the bones are well formed the young, when
not feeding, prefer to rest with the full length of the tarsus
extended on the ground, but even then appear as tall as other shore
birds of similar body size. Stilts show considerable attachment for
their young, and, unless dispersed by some untoward accident,
frequently remain in family groups long after the young are able to
care for themselves. As the latter become strong on the wing the
family parties range over the country in search of suitable feeding
grounds. As the nights grow cold in the North the birds band
together in larger flocks and finally on some moonlit night in
September, young and old may be heard calling as they pass overhead
on their southward migration.

_Plumages._--Robert Ridgway (1919) describes the downy young stilt as follows:

Upper parts light buffy grayish mottled with dusky, the back and
rump with several large blotches of black; head, neck, and under
parts buffy whitish or brownish white, the crown, occiput, and hind
neck grayish, the crown with a mesial streak of black, the occiput
with several irregular spots of the same.

The juvenal plumage appears first on the scapulars, back and breast; and the tail is the last to appear. The young bird is fully feathered, except the tail, by the time it is two-thirds grown. In fresh juvenal plumage the color pattern is much like that of the adult female; the crown, hind neck, back and wings are brownish black, all the feathers being edged or tipped with "cinnamon"; the edgings are narrowest on the head, upper back and wing coverts, and broadest on the scapulars and tertials; the face, sides of the head and all under parts are white; the central tail feathers are dusky and the others are white, washed with dusky near the tip, and all tipped with pinkish buff. This plumage is worn all through the fall and winter, with no change except by wear and fading; before winter the edgings have largely disappeared.

A partial prenuptial molt of the body plumage occurs in early spring, when young birds become indistinguishable from adults, except for some retained juvenal wing coverts. Adults probably have a partial prenuptial molt in early spring and a complete postnuptial molt in late summer, but there are no well marked seasonal differences in plumage.

_Food._--Doctor Wetmore (1925) writes:

Stilts feed by picking up insects on muddy shores or in shallow
water, and though not averse to frequenting alkaline areas, on the
whole prefer fresher water than do avocets. For detailed analysis,
80 stomachs of the black-necked stilt were available, distributed
from March to August, and collected in California, Utah, Florida,
and Porto Rico. Vegetable food in these amounted to only 1.1 per
cent, whereas the animal matter formed 98.9 per cent. The birds are
adept in seizing rapidly moving prey and in general are very
methodical in their manner of obtaining food. Gravel is picked up
to some extent to aid digestion, and part of the seeds taken may
have been swallowed for the same purpose.

The animal food consisted mainly of insects, aquatic bugs and beetles making up the largest items; dragonfly nymphs, caddisflies, mayfly nymphs, flies, billbugs, mosquito larvae, and grasshoppers were included. Crawfishes, snails, and a few tiny fishes were eaten. The vegetable food consisted mainly of a few seeds of aquatic and marsh plants.

_Behavior._--The flight of the stilt is steady and direct, but not particularly swift; the bill is held straight out in front and the legs are extended backwards, giving the bird a long, slim appearance. Over their eggs or young, stilts sometimes hover on steadily beating wings with dangling legs. In their excitement they sometimes climb up into the air and make startling dives.

But stilts are essentially waders; for wading they are highly specialized, and here they show to best advantage. At times they seem a bit wabbly on their absurdly long and slender legs, notably when trembling with excitement over the invasion of their breeding grounds. But really they are expert in the use of these well-adapted limbs, and one can not help admiring the skillful and graceful way in which they wade about in water breast deep, as well as on dry land, in search of their insect prey. The legs are much bent at each step, the foot is carefully raised and gently but firmly planted again at each long stride. The legs are so long that when the bird is feeding on land it is necessary to bend the legs backward to enable the bill to reach the ground.

Stilts can swim and even dive if necessary, but they are very awkward at both, as might be expected with such long legs and the absence of webbed feet; they never indulge in either action except in cases of dire necessity. They are usually gentle and unsuspicious birds, much more easily approached than most large waders. On their breeding grounds they are especially fearless and demonstrative. Some of their amusing antics are well described by Mr. Dawson (1923) as follows:

While all are shouting lustily, the birds whose nests are more
immediately threatened are doing decoy stunts of several
fascinating sorts. The favorite line of effort is the broken-leg
act, in which the bird collapses suddenly, as though one of its
little pipestem legs had snapped in two. The act is performed with
such sincerity, even when the bird is standing in only an inch or
so of water, that it never ceases to be amusing. Moreover, the
trick is repeated diligently every few feet, so that it begins to
look as though the bird had taken some fakir vow to prostrate
itself every third or fourth step. The avocet, now that one thinks
of it, does the same thing; but it does it awkwardly or, as it
were, cautiously, and so unconvincingly. It has manifestly copied
from its more agile neighbor. The second line of effort, most
faithfully pursued, is wing fluttering. In this, again, the stilt
is rather the mistress. It has perfected a trick of putting up one
wing at a time and letting the wind tousle it about, as though it
were really broken. Of course it also flutters both wings, and goes
through other nondescript flopping and fluttering performances,
such as are common to the family of shore birds.

_Voice._--My first impression of the note as heard on the breeding grounds was recorded as a loud, guttural _whuck, whuck, whuck_; at other times it has seemed harsh and shrill. Audubon (1840) referred to their ordinary notes as "a whistling cry, different from the _cleek, cleek, cleek_, which they emit when they have nests or young." C. J. Maynard (1896), speaking of the breeding season, says: "The note at this time was quite different from that given earlier in the season, as they now uttered short syllables sounding like _put, put, put_, repeated rapidly, that of the males being harsh, while the females gave it shriller and more continuous."

_Fall._--Stuart T. Danforth (1925), who made some studies of a breeding colony of stilts in Porto Rico, thus describes their departure in the fall:

By the latter part of June the adults had begun to flock again, and
by the middle of September all the stilts at the lagoon (155 by
actual count) had formed one compact flock. This count was made on
September 17. By September 20 only about 50 were left; on September
23 there were 20; on September 27 and September 30, 16; on October
7, 5. After that none were seen.

DISTRIBUTION

_Range._--The United States, and Central and South America.

_Breeding range._--North to Oregon (Klamath Lake, Burns and Malheur Lake); Utah (Brigham and Salt Lake City); Colorado (San Luis Lake and Fort Garland); Louisiana (Black Bayou, Calcasieu, Abbeville, and Vermilion Bay); and Florida (Titusville). East to Florida (Titusville, Cape Canaveral, Kissimmee, Eden, and Lake Hicpoche); the Bahama Islands (Andros, Inagua and Green Cay); Cuba (Manzanillo); Porto Rico (Guanica lagoon); Venezuela (lagoon of Savonet and Curacao); Peru (Upper Ucayali River); and probably Ecuador (Guayaquil). South to probably Ecuador (Guayaquil); and probably the Galapagos Islands (Chatham and Albemarle Islands). West probably, to the Galapagos Islands (Albemarle Island); probably Nicaragua (Momotombo); probably Oaxaca (Tehuantepec); Tamaulipas (Tampico and Matamoras); probably lower California (San Quintin Bay); California (Santa Ana, Los Angeles, Castac Lake, Buena Vista Lake, Alila, Tulare Lake, Fresno, Los Banos, Stockton, Sutter County, and Tule Lake); and Oregon (Klamath Lake). There also is a breeding record for Saskatchewan (Fort Qu'Appelle, June 13, 1894).

_Winter range._--The black-necked stilt is no doubt resident throughout most or all of its breeding range in Central and South America. At this season it has been detected north to lower California (San Jose del Cabo, Santiago, and Cape San Lucas); Sinaloa (Mazatlan and Escuinapa); Tamaulipas (Matamoras); Texas (Brownsville and Refugio County); rarely Louisiana (Grand Chenier); Florida (Fort Myers); and Porto Rico.

_Spring migration._--Early dates of arrival are: California, Ojai, March 27, Daggett, April 10, Escondido, April 13, Stockton, April 13, Santa Barbara, April 14, and Fort Crook, April 19, Oregon, Narrows, April 8, and Malheur Lake, April 17; Arizona, Palo Verde, April 4; New Mexico, State College, May 17, and Lake Buford, May 30; Colorado, Denver, May 5; Idaho, Rupert, April 28; and Montana, Billings, May 19. Migrants also have been observed to arrive at points on the Gulf coast as Texas, Port Lavaca, March 18; Louisiana, Sandfly Pass, March 16, and Vermilion Bay, April 27; and Florida, Merritts Island, March 10, and Titusville, March 11.

_Fall migration._--Late dates of fall departure are: Oregon, Narrows, October 26; California, Fresno, September 15, Tulare Lake, October 7, Buttonwillow, November 13, and Riverdale, November 19; Utah, Ogden, October 8; Colorado, Windsor, November 5; and New Mexico, Jornada, September 25.

_Casual records._--The black-necked stilt has been reported from many of the eastern States but some of these are indefinite or otherwise unsatisfactory. Among those that are considered valid are Mississippi, Vicksburg, July 13, 1913; Alabama, Leighton, August 26, 1892; South Carolina, Sullivans Island, May, 1881 (possibly breeding); New Jersey, Stone Harbor, April 24, 1894, and Cape May, July 21, 1843; New York, Great South Bay, two taken, one in 1843; New Hampshire, Rye Beach, reported as taken several years previous to 1902; Maine, Rockland, one taken early in May, 1889; New Brunswick, Maces Bay, one in September, 1880; Iowa, Hawarden, one in 1890, Webster County, several in the summer of 1898; Wisconsin, Racine, April, 1847; North Dakota, Hankinson, July 29, 1921; Kansas, Wichita, one killed in 1906; and Nebraska, a few occurrences around Omaha in 1893, 1894, and 1895. One also was taken on San Nicholas Island of the Santa Barbara group, California, on May 25, 1897.

_Egg dates._--California: 140 records, April 26 to August 4, 70 records, May 21 to June 8. Utah: 12 records, May 10 to June 24, 6 records, May 14 to 23. Texas: 23 records, April 17 to June 11; 12 records, April 26 to May 28. Florida: 90 records, April 14 to June 25; 45 records, April 14 to May 6.

Family SCOLOPACIDAE, Snipes and Sandpipers

SCOLOPAX RUSTICOLA Linnaeus

EUROPEAN WOODCOCK

HABITS

This fine large member of the snipe family is widely distributed in Europe and Asia and has occurred as a straggler in North America half a dozen times or more at various points from Newfoundland to Virginia.

Seton Gordon (1915) gives a very good idea of its distribution and migrations, as follows:

The principal summer home of the woodcock is the northern portion
of the Old World, for it is found extending from eastern Siberia to
the western extremity of Europe. The woodcock nesting in Kamschatka
migrate to Japan with the advent of the cold weather, those
frequenting Mongolia to China, while those which have nested in
western Siberia and on the plateau of Tibet move down to Burma,
India, Afghanistan, and Persia. Our own winter visitors are those
birds which have bred in Scandinavia, Finland, and perhaps Russia.
Those which press on south past our islands arrive in Palestine, in
North Africa, and in Egypt. Throughout Russia the woodcock is found
nesting, extending though in diminished numbers, as far south as
the Caucasus and the Crimea. It also breeds in central France and
in northern Italy. Some of its most distant nesting grounds are in
Kashmir and Japan, while it has been found breeding in the
Himalayas at the height of 10,000 feet. In the Faroe Islands it has
occurred as a passing visitor and has also been recorded from
Spitsbergen.

_Courtship._--The same writer refers to a nuptial performance akin to the evening song flight of our woodcock, of which he says:

Immediately after sunset the entire male woodcock population leave
their secluded haunts, and fly backwards and forwards over the same
line of country, uttering a peculiar cry unheard except during the
season of nesting. The notes may be termed the song of the males,
and are uttered by the birds previous to their departure for their
feeding grounds in the evening. The song commences with grunting
cries, ending up with a sharp and penetrating note repeated maybe
several times in quick succession, _pisick, pisick_. At times two
cock birds during their aerial maneuvers cross one another's path,
and then ensues a stern chase over the tree tops, the birds
uttering repeatedly their chirping cries. The "roding" of the
woodcock never takes place before the sun has set during the
earlier part of spring, but at a more advanced period, in May, the
birds commence their evening flights rather earlier. The flighting
is continued till deep twilight has settled over the glen, but
ceases before night. In the morning I, personally, have never heard
this "roding," but it is said to be recommenced before daybreak,
and to cease previous to full daylight. The woodcock when roding
does not fly repeatedly over the same part of the wood; there is an
interval between each of its appearances.

It is said to pass over the same country three times in the course
of the evening. On the first visit it flies high and usually fast;
on the second its progress is lower and more leisurely; while on
the third and last the bird moves just above the trees.

_Nesting._--In the southern portions of Great Britain the woodcock is a very early breeder, many birds nesting in March and some in February. Late nestings in July indicate the probability that two broods are sometimes raised, though this is unusual among waders. Mr. Gordon (1915) describes the nesting habits as follows:

The nesting ground is usually a wood, deciduous trees, being, I
think preferred, owing to the soft layer of fallen leaves covering
the ground. Close-grown plantations are rarely chosen as nesting
sites, and small belts of birch and oak are favorite nesting
grounds, provided that there is plenty of space between the trees.
It is my experience that the birds dislike dense cover in which to
nest; a few broken-down braken offer a suitable position, or the
bird may scrape out a hollow amongst the deep layers of fallen
beech and oak leaves which cover the ground beneath these trees.
The eggs usually number four, but at times only three are found.
Their ground color is normally buff colored, and they are liberally
spotted and blotched by dark reddish-brown markings. Nothing more
primitive than the nest of the woodcock can be found in the bird
world. It is merely a slight hollow scraped in the ground and
generally without intentional lining of any kind. The mother
woodcock often sits very hard on her eggs, especially if incubation
be far advanced, for she relies on the close harmonization of her
plumage with her surroundings. Sometimes I have been able to
approach to within a few feet of such a bird, and by not the
slightest movement did she betray that she was alive. As the result
of her early nesting, the woodcock has sometimes to cover her eggs
when snow lies around to a considerable depth.

Rev. Henry H. Slater (1898) says that the nest is "often at the foot of a young Scotch fir, or other tree."

_Eggs._--The European woodcock usually lays four eggs, but as many as six and even eight have been found in a nest, probably the product of two birds. These are much like large eggs of the American woodcock. They are about ovate in shape and have a slight gloss. The ground colors vary from "deep olive buff" to "cream buff." They are usually sparingly, but sometimes quite heavily, marked with irregular spots and small blotches. The underlying markings, in light shades of drab are numerous and quite conspicuous. Over these are varying amounts of spots and blotches of light browns, ranging in color from "snuff brown" to "clay color." Occasionally there are a few spots or scrawls of "bister" or "clove brown" about the larger end. Herbert Massey (1913) describes the eggs as follows:

The ground color ranges from the palest cream (nearly white)
through deeper cream to pale buff, yellow-buff, and the deepest
brown buff (many of the eggs of this latter type having a distinct
pink tone), speckled and spotted and blotched with yellow-brown,
dark brown, and purplish gray. As a rule, the eggs in the same set
are fairly uniform in the pattern of the markings, but occasionally
you get a set with one egg much more marked than the other three,
and in many cases you find two distinct shades of ground color in
the same set.

The measurements of 100 eggs, furnished by F. C. R. Jourdain, average 43.8 by 33.6 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure =49= by 34.8, 44.9 by =36.4=, =40.2= by 34, and 43.1 by =31.6= millimeters.

_Young._--Incubation lasts for 20 or 21 days and is performed by the female only. The young remain in the nest but a short time, where they are brooded by their mother and carefully tended by both parents. Several good observers have seen the mother bird carry her young away between her legs. Dresser (1871) quotes John J. Dalgleish as follows:

I have had on three occasions the good fortune to see the woodcock
in the act of carrying her young. On the first occasion the bird
rose from my feet one day in the month of June, in a thick coppice
cover in Argyllshire, and flew with her strange burden carried
between her thighs for about 30 yards, in the manner well described
in a note in Mr. Gray's Birds of the West of Scotland. On following
her she again rose, still carrying the young one, and flew into
some thick cover. On this and the next occasion, which was in
Perthshire, the birds uttered no cry; but the last time I witnessed
this curious habit, which was on the 5th of May last, the bird made
the peculiar cry alluded to in the note in Mr. Gray's work. On this
occasion I could observe the bird more distinctly, as it was in an
old oak cover, with very little underwood, where I discovered her.
On rising she flew from 35 to 40 yards, calling as above mentioned,
and then, alighting among some grass, seemed to flutter along,
still retaining hold of the chick. On raising her again, the same
maneuver was repeated, only that the distance flown each time was
greater, but always in the segment of a circle, as if she were
unwilling to leave the rest of the brood. On returning to the spot
where she rose at first, I discovered one of these, which was more
than half grown, the quill feathers being well formed, and must
altogether have formed rather a heavy burden. On taking it up, it
uttered a cry, which was at once responded to by the parent bird,
although the latter did not again take to wing from the bushes into
which it had ultimately flown.

Abel Chapman (1924) writes:

For many years a question used to be discussed as to woodcocks
carrying their young; but the matter never specially interested me,
until, on August 3, 1915, I happened to see it with my own eyes.
This was in Houxty wood, and since then I have witnessed the
performance on many occasions. During the war this wood was largely
felled for military purposes and the area thus cleared, and
subsequently replanted, has become a specially favored resort of
our long-billed friends. The annexed sketch, made there on June 15,
1920, shows exactly how the feat is accomplished. That particular
woodcock rose on the hillside a trifle above me, slowly flapping by
close in front, and looking back at me over her shoulder. What
first struck my attention was the curiously depressed tail, held
almost vertical; then the mother's feet, hanging down below;
finally the youngster, with its very short beak, pressed between
its parent's thighs. Since then I have witnessed many similar
exhibitions; indeed, in summer they are almost daily on view.

_Plumages._--The downy young of the European woodcock is thus described in Witherby's (1920) Handbook:

Forehead and broad band over eye to nape light ochraceous buff, a
russet median streak from base of upper mandible to crown; crown
russet intermixed with light ochraceous buff, centre of nape
russet, sides light ochraceous buff; an irregular and interrupted
russet band from nape to uropygial tuft, another across wing; rest
of upper parts and sides of body with irregular bands and patches
of ochraceous buff and russet; from base of upper mandible to eye a
broad black-brown streak; a small patch of same behind eye; a patch
of russet on lower throat; rest of under parts light ochraceous
buff.

The juvenal plumage is therein fully described. It is much like the adult, differing only in minor details, but can easily be recognized by the looser or softer structure of the feathers. Practically all of this plumage, except the primaries and secondaries, is replaced in the fall by the first winter plumage, which is indistinguishable from the adult. Adults have a complete postnuptial molt from July to December and a partial prenuptial molt, involving nearly everything but the wings, from February to May.

_Food._--Mr. Gordon (1915) refers to the feeding habits of the woodcock as follows:

It feeds mainly by night on wet, boggy ground, and eats an enormous
quantity of worms; indeed, it may swallow almost its own weight of
food in the course of a single day. When the blackberries have
ripened the woodcock betake themselves to the hillsides and consume
great quantities of the fruit.

Mr. Slater (1898) says:

I have occasionally flushed woodcocks at night from wet rushy
fields, where they were doubtless probing the ground for worms and
larvae, occasionally turning over the droppings of cattle for
concealed beetles. But they also feed in woods to a certain extent,
turning the dead leaves over to find insects, etc. The accounts of
the extent of their appetites and of the amount of worms, etc.,
which they will put away at a sitting are surprising. These they
find in the earth with their bills, which are modified into a very
delicate organ of touch.

If the horny epidermis be removed, a number of small pits of a
hexagonal shape will be seen in the bone at the end of the bill,
remotely suggesting an incipient honey comb. In each one of these
pits a minute fibril of the olfactory nerve has its termination,
and by this means, when the bill is thrust into the soft, wet
soil, the slightest wriggle of the least living creature is
instantly telegraphed to the woodcock's sensibilities.

Witherby's Handbook (1920) includes the following items in its food: Earthworms; also insects (coleoptera and their larvae, orthoptera (_Forficula_) larvae of lepidoptera, etc.); small mollusca, etc. Grains of maize recorded on one occasion in stomach, and mussels (_Mytilus_) also said to be eaten, as well as small crustacea.

_Behavior._--Mr. Gordon (1915) says:

During its flight the bill of the woodcock is pointed downwards,
and the wings are not extended to their full stretch. It seldom
makes sustained flights, however, except on migration. During a
shoot at Alnick a woodcock was seen to alight on the ground and
then to throw leaves over its back, presumably to hide itself from
the guns. If so, it would seem that the woodcock is one of the most
sagacious of birds.

Selby (1833) writes:

The haunts selected by these birds, for their residence during the
daytime, are usually the closest brakes of birch and other brushy
underwood, and where the ground, from the deep shade, Is nearly
free from herbage; and, for this reason, thick fir plantations of
10 or 12 years' growth are a favorite resort. In woods that are
very extensive they are generally found, and abound most in
thickets by the sides of open glades, or where roads intersect, as
by these they pass to and from their feeding ground at evening and
in the dawn of the morning. Unless disturbed, they remain quietly
at roost upon the ground during the whole day, but as soon as the
sun is wholly below the horizon, they are in full activity, and
taking flight nearly at the same instant, leave the woods and cover
for the adjoining meadows, or open land, over which they disperse
themselves, and are fully engaged in search of food during the
whole night.

Mr. Slater (1898) observes:

It is well known that woodcocks follow certain routes to their
favorite feeding grounds in the evening, as they also have
preferences for certain woods and certain parts of woods to lie in
during the day. In short, they are very peculiar and fanciful in
their tastes, and are guided by circumstances not apparent to us in
their liking for one place rather than for another which seems to
our eyes to offer the same advantages. A wood above my father's
late house, in Northumberland, was a regular passing place for
cocks, and at dusk on any April or May evening a sight of half a
dozen at least was a certainty, as they passed rapidly above the
trees, announced, long before they themselves were visible, by
their peculiar half squeak, half whistle. I have here seen them
"tilting" in the air in the manner described by St. John and
others. It has been suggested that this tilting (at which time they
tumble and twirl about in the air in pairs and threes, apparently
prodding at one another with their bills) is connected with
pairing, but I can not think so, as I have witnessed it as late as
the end of May. I rather think it is pure playfulness, as of
children just out of school, after lying concealed and quiet most
of the day.

According to Yarrell (1871), woodcocks sometimes become exhausted and fall into the sea on their migrations; but they do not always perish, for he says:

A woodcock when flushed on the coast has been known to settle on
the sea, and when again disturbed rose without difficulty and flew
away. Numerous instances are recorded of woodcocks alighting on the
decks of ships in the English Channel and elsewhere. The rapidity
of flight of this bird is at times so great that a pane of plate
glass more than three-eighths of an inch thick has been smashed by
the contact, and one was actually impaled on the weather cock of
one of the churches in Ipswich.

_Fall._--Mr. Slater (1898), writing of the fall migration in Great Britain, says:

Though many breed with us, there is a large migration from the
North in the late autumn. If the moon is full about the end of
October, they appear to come in a big "rush" then, but sometimes in
driblets as early as the end of September, as late as mid-November.
But their movements are largely influenced by the wind and
atmosphere as well as the moon; if the weather is foggy or they are
exhausted by a heavy contrary wind, they drop on the coast as soon
as they touch it, and large bags are sometimes made on the sand
hills by those on the lookout for them. If the wind is light and
weather clear, they seem to pass inland at once to favorite and
suitable covers. Should frost come--which drives the worms down,
and also prevents the birds from probing--cock move south and west.
Therefore, it is in our southwest counties, Wales and West Ireland,
where, owing to the Gulf stream frost and cold are seldom severe,
that the best woodcock shooting is to be had, after the seasonal
migration is over. Though they travel as a rule at night, and
chiefly at the time of the full moon, this is not invariably the
case; on October 28, 1881, I saw a woodcock come straight in from
the sea, 20 yards high, and pitch on a bare patch of shingle; this
was shortly before midday, and I thought it such an unusual
circumstance that I skinned the bird for my collection.

_Winter._--The woodcock is a winter resident as well as a migrant in Great Britain. Dresser (1871) writes:

Their numbers are, of course, greatly augmented in the winter,
large numbers of immigrants being added to those which breed (as
after mentioned); indeed I am not sure whether all of those we have
in winter are immigrants, and that those which breed with us move
further south in pursuance of their migratory instinct; but this is
a point very difficult to discover. In the district I now allude
to, their numbers are much diminished on the appearance of severe,
frosty weather, when they appear to go to the coast, where they
find the feeding grounds more open; if, however, the frost be
slight, they remain.

On the west coast of Argyllshire they are found in greater
numbers, and are not so much confined to covers, being found in
open weather scattered through all the sheltered glens where there
is any brushwood or even bracken. On the occurrence of frost,
however, they all gather to the low-lying covers near the sea,
where its influence serves to keep open the springs; and in such
weather very large bags are often made, as they seem to come not
only from the outlying spots above mentioned, but from the inland
districts, where the frost has sealed up every one of their usual
haunts.

DISTRIBUTION

_Breeding range._--Northern Europe and Asia. North in Scandinavia to latitude 67°, in Lapland and Finland, in western Russia to 65°, and in eastern Russia to 64°. East to the Sea of Okhotsk. West to the British Isles. South to the Azores, Canaries, and Madeira (where it is resident), the Pyrenees, Alps, Transylvania, Carpathians, Himalayas (up to 10,000 feet), Mongolia, and Japan.

_Winter range._--Great Britain, the Mediterranean basin, northern Africa and southern Asia, Persia, India, Burma, China, Japan, and occasionally Ceylon.

_Casual records._--Casual in the Faeroes, Spitsbergen, Greenland, and North America. Prof. Wells W. Cooke (1912) says:

It wanders occasionally to eastern North America, and has occurred
in Loudoun County, Va., in 1873 (Coues); Chester County, Pa., the
end of November, 1886 (Stone); one was taken near Shrewsbury, N.
J., December 6, 1859 (Lawrence); one, September, 1889, somewhere in
New Jersey (Warren); one, probably of this species, near Newport,
R. I. (Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway); one at Chambly, Quebec,
November 11, 1882 (Wintle); and one at St. John, Newfoundland,
January 9, 1862 (Sclater).

_Egg dates._--Great Britain: 29 records, March 9 to August 5; 15 records, April 18 to June 22.

RUBICOLA MINOR (Gmelin)

AMERICAN WOODCOCK

HABITS

This mysterious hermit of the alders, this recluse of the boggy thickets, this wood nymph of crepuscular habits is a common bird and well distributed in our Eastern States, widely known, but not intimately known. Its quiet retiring habits do not lead to human intimacy. It may live almost in our midst unnoticed. Its needs are modest, its habitat is circumscribed, and it clings with tenacity to its favorite haunts even when closely encroached upon by civilization. The banks of a stream running through my place, close to the heart of the city, were once famous woodcock covers in which the birds persisted long after the surroundings were built up; and even within recent years I have had a pair of woodcocks living in the shrubbery along the stream for a week or two at a time.

Who knows where to look for woodcocks? Their haunts are so varied that one may not be surprised to find them almost anywhere, especially on migrations. Flight birds are here to-day and gone to-morrow. Their favorite resorts are alder thickets along the banks of meandering streams or spring-fed boggy runs; rich bottom lands or scrubby hollows, overgrown with willows, maples, alders, and poison sumac; or the scrubby edges of damp, second-growth woods, mixed with birches; any such place will suit them where they can find moist soil, not too wet or too sour, well supplied with earthworms. During the hot, sultry weather of July and August, the molting season, they seek the seclusion of cool, moist, leafy woods or dense thickets; or they may resort to the cool hillside or mountain bogs, fed by cool springs; or, if the weather is very dry, they may be found in the wet grassy meadows. Woodcocks do not like too much water and, after heavy rains, they may be driven from their usual covers to well-drained hillsides, sparsely covered with small birches, maples, locusts, and cedars. Sometimes they are found on the tops of mountains; George B. Sennett (1887) saw a pair on the top of Roan Mountain in North Carolina, at an elevation of 6,000 feet, "in a clump of balsams; the overflow from numerous springs which had their sources at this spot formed an open, adjoining marsh of several acres."

Woodcocks often appear in unexpected places, such as city parks, yards, gardens, orchards, or even lawns. John T. Nichols writes to me:

A neighbor (Mr. W. S. Dana) called for me at about 10 o'clock in
the morning of a sparklingly clear, rather cool summer's day, to
show me a woodcock that was feeding on his lawn, which slopes down
to an almost fresh water arm of Moriches Bay. We found the bird
still busily engaged where he had left it. It was out in the bright
sunlight, crouched, walking about slowly but continuously. It held
its body in an unsteady wavering manner, and was picking and
digging about the roots of the short grass stubble, apparently
obtaining some food too small for us to determine. The piece of
lawn where the bird was operating was low and flat, adjacent to the
edge of the water where protected by a low bulkhead. The ground was
slightly moist, perhaps from seepage, which may have accounted for
its presence. It was remarkably unsuspicious, allowing us to crawl
within 2 or 3 yards, before flying back to alight under the shade
of near-by trees; but was a full-grown bird, strong on the wing.

I have, more than once, seen a woodcock crouching in the short grass beside a country road, quite unconcerned as I drove past. I have frequently seen one in my yard about the shrubbery and I remember seeing my father stand on his front piazza and shoot one that was standing under an arborvitae hedge. Moist cornfields are often favorite resorts for woodcocks in summer.

_Spring._--The woodcock is the first of our waders to migrate north and one of the earliest of all our migrants, coming with the bluebirds and the robins, as soon as winter has begun to loosen its grip. The date depends on the weather and is very variable, for the bird must wait for a thaw to unlock its food supply in the bogs and spring holes. Walter H. Rich (1907) has known the woodcock to arrive in Maine as early as February 10, and says that early birds find a living about the big ant hills, until the alder covers are ready for them.

In Audubon's (1840) time the migration must have been very heavy, for he says:

At the time when the woodcocks are traveling from the south toward
all parts of the United States, on their way to their breeding
places, these birds, although they migrate singly, follow each
other with such rapidity, that they may be said to arrive in
flocks, the one coming directly in the wake of the other. This is
particularly observable by a person standing on the eastern banks
of the Mississippi or the Ohio, in the evening dusk, from the
middle of March to that of April, when almost every instant there
whizzes past him a woodcock, with a velocity equaling that of our
swiftest birds. See them flying across and low over the broad
stream; the sound produced by the action of their wings reaches
your ear as they approach, and gradually dies away after they have
passed and again entered the woods.

No such flights can be seen to-day, but we occasionally have a comparatively heavy migration; such a flight occurred in 1923 and is thus described in some notes from Edward H. Forbush:

The most remarkable occurrence of the past two months was the
prevalence of migrating woodcocks over a large part of southern New
England and along the coastal regions to Nova Scotia. The first
woodcock was reported in Massachusetts the last week in February
and from the first week in March onward woodcocks were noted in
slowly increasing numbers over a large part of New England. From
March 22 to the first week in April the number of these birds
scattered through Connecticut and eastern Massachusetts was
remarkable. At evening one could find them almost anywhere. They
were seen in the most unlikely places even in daylight. They were
in all the towns around Boston and in the suburbs of the city
itself, and west at least to the Connecticut Valley they were even
more numerous in the woods and swamps. In southern New England at
this time a large part of the snow had gone and in going had thawed
the ground so that no frost remained and the woodcocks could find
earthworms almost everywhere. Farther north there was not only
frost in the ground but there was deep snow and the birds could
find no food.

_Courtship._--The woodcock may be found by those who seek him and know his haunts, but it is only for a short time during the breeding season, that he comes out into the open and makes himself conspicuous. His spectacular evening song-flight has been seen by many observers, and numerous writers have referred to it or described it more or less fully. William Brewster (1894) has given us the best and most complete account of it, but it is too long to quote in full here. I prefer to give my own version of it. The time to look and listen for it is during the laying and incubation period--say the month of April in Massachusetts, earlier farther south, even December and January in the Gulf States. The performance usually begins soon after sunset, as twilight approaches. On dark nights it ceases about when the afterglow finally disappears in the western sky; and it begins again in the morning twilight, lasting from dawn to broad daylight. On moonlight nights it is often continued through much or all of the night. The woodcock's nest is usually in some swampy thicket or on the edge of the woods, near an open pasture, field, or clearing; and here in the nearest open space, preferably on some knoll or low hillside within hearing of his sitting mate, the male woodcock entertains her with his thrilling performance. Sometimes, but not always, he struts around on the ground, with tail erect and spread, and with bill pointing downwards and resting on his chest. More often he stands still, or walks about slowly in a normal attitude, producing at intervals of a few seconds two very different notes--a loud, rasping, emphatic _zeeip_--which might be mistaken for the note of the nighthawk, and a soft guttural note, audible at only a short distance, like the croak of a frog or the cluck of a hen. Suddenly he rises, and flies off at a rising angle, circling higher and higher, in increasing spirals, until he looks like a mere speck in the sky, mounting to a height of 200 or 300 feet; during the upward flight he whistles continuously, twittering musical notes, like _twitter_, _itter_, _itter_, _itter_, repeated without a break. These notes may be caused by the whistling of his wings, but it seems to me that they are vocal. Then comes his true love song--a loud, musical, three-syllable note--sounding to me like _chicharee_, _chicharee_, _chicharee_ uttered three times with only a slight interval between the outbursts; this song is given as the bird flutters downward, circling, zigzagging, and finally volplaning down to the ground at or near his starting point. He soon begins again on the _zeeip_ notes and the whole act is repeated again and again. Sometimes two, or even three, birds may be performing within sight or hearing; occasionally one is seen to drive another away.

The performance has been similarly described by several others with slight variations. Mr. Brewster (1894) refers to what I have called the _zeeip_ note as _paap_ and the soft guttural note as _p'tul_, and says that--

"Each _paap_ was closely preceded by a _p'tul_, so closely at times that the two sounds were nearly merged."

He counted the _paaps_ as "uttered consecutively 31, 21, 37, 29, and 28 times."

Describing the action in detail, he says:

At each utterance of the _paap_ the neck was slightly lengthened,
the head was thrown upward and backward (much in the manner of a
least flycatcher's while singing), the bill was opened wide and
raised to a horizontal position, the wings were jerked out from the
body. All these movements were abrupt and convulsive, indicating
considerable muscular effort on the part of the bird. There was
perhaps also a slight twitching of the tail, but this member was
not perceptibly raised or expanded. The return of the several parts
to their respective normal positions was quite as sudden as were
the initial movements. The forward recovery of the head was well
marked. The opening and shutting of the bill strongly suggested
that of a pair of tongs. During the emission of the _paap_ the
throat swelled and its plumage was ruffled, but neither effect was
more marked than with any of our small birds while in the act of
singing.

The mouth opened to such an extent that I could look directly down
the bird's throat, which appeared large enough to admit the end of
one's forefinger. The lateral distension of the mouth was
especially striking.

Referring to the song flight, he says: "Two flights, which I timed from the start to the finish, lasted, respectively, 57 and 59 seconds, the song 11 and 12 seconds, respectively." During the flight he followed him with a glass and "made out distinctly that while singing he alternately flapped his wings (several times in succession) and held them extended and motionless."

Francis H. Allen has sent me the following notes on his impression of the song:

In all that has been written of this wonderful performance of the
woodcock's, I do not remember to have seen any full description of
the song itself; the peeping, or _peenting_, on the ground, with
the alternating water-dropping sounds and the accompaniment of
head-jerking and wing-lifting has been described at length, as well
as the remarkable spiral ascent into the air on whistling wings;
but the character of the actual song, which is uttered at the
summit of the ascent and as the bird comes down, is worth a little
more attention. It begins in a confused series of chipping whistles
which convey the impression of coming from at least three birds at
once. These soon resolve themselves into groups of four to
six--usually four in my experience--descending notes, the groups
alternating with groups of high-pitched wing-whistles. These song
notes vary in sweetness with different individuals, but are often
very clear and musical. Not the least interesting aspect of the
woodcock's evening hymn is the fact that so stolid appearing a bird
should be moved by the fervor of courtship to execute so elaborate
and exciting a performance. The excitement attending the affair as
far as the spectator, or rather listener, is concerned lies to
great extent in the wing whistling. When the woodcock first rises,
the whistle is comparatively low, but as he mounts, the pitch rises
and the rapidity of production increases. It is a steady succession
of very short whistling notes for some time, but, when the bird and
the whistle both reach their height, it comes in short groups of
extremely rapid whistles alternating with brief intervals of
motionless wings, as if the performer were breathless with
excitement and effort and could not sustain his flight for long at
a time. This is the effect, I mean. Probably the bird finds it easy
enough, for he makes his flight at comparatively short intervals
and during his periods of rest he is hard at work producing his
harsh and unmusical nighthawk-like _peent_ notes which involve a
deal of muscular effort.

Lynds Jones (1909) says that "the bird floats downward by a crooked path, the while calling in coaxing tones _p chuck tuck cuck oo_, _p chuck tuck cuckoo_, uttered more slowly at first, regularly increasing in rapidity until the notes are almost a wheedling call." Isador S. Trostler (1893) describes a feature of the courtship which I have not seen mentioned elsewhere; he writes:

The birds often play in a very droll manner, running round and
round each other in a small circle, their feathers ruffled, their
wings lifted, and their long bills pointing nearly directly upward,
with their heads resting on their backs.

Sometimes they will hop on one foot, holding the other at a queer
angle, as if it had been broken or hurt. The male bird utters a
low indescribable sound during all the playing, and the sight of
these queer antics is worth more than to have seen Modjeska or
Barrett in their celebrated plays.

_Nesting._--The nesting sites of the woodcock are almost as varied as its haunts at other times. I have never known how or where to look for its nest; in over 40 years of field work I have seen but one nest with eggs. That was shown to me by Mrs. Mary M. Kaan, in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, on June 2, 1924. It was located where I should never have thought of looking for one, in an open, rocky hollow in open woods, within 50 feet of a bridle path on one side and about the same distance from a swampy ravine and brook on the other side. The nest was on a little hummock, surrounded by herbage about a foot high; it was a mere hollow in the ground lined with dead leaves. Although it was in fairly plain sight, it was a long time before I could see the sitting bird, even when it was pointed out to me. The bird sat like a rock, as this species usually does, while I took a series of photographs of it, moving gradually nearer. I even removed two leaves which were resting on her bill, and Mrs. Kaan stroked her on the back before she left. The nest held only three eggs, which were probably a second laying.

The usual nesting sites are in alder runs, swampy thickets, brushy corners in pastures, or in underbrush or tall weeds along the edges of woods. Woodcocks are early breeders and it sometimes happens that nests are buried under late falls of snow; in such cases the birds continue to sit as long as it is possible to do so. The nest is often placed at the foot of a small tree or bush, occasionally beside a log or stump or even under fallen brush. An abundance of fallen leaves seems to be an essential requirement, of which the nest is usually made and among which the bird relies on its protective coloration for concealment; but its big black eyes sometimes reveal it.

L. Whitney Watkins (1894) found a nest near Manchester, Michigan, in heavy timber, and within a few feet of a reed-bordered, springy spot, it was within 2 feet of an ovenbird's nest. Another nest he describes as follows:

The old bird, curiously enough, had selected for her nesting site
an open spot where some fallen boughs had partially decayed, and
within 5 feet of a picket fence enclosing an open pasture field.
Opposite her on the other side, were ash, elm, oak, and other
trees, of no considerable size, and round about were many
frost-dried stems of aster and goldenrod, interspersed with the
fallen leaves of the previous summer. Little of green was near.

E. G. Taber (1904) found a nest that was situated in a swampy corner of a field planted with corn, only 6 feet from the open, on a slightly raised portion of the ground. This corner was overgrown with black ash, soft maple, tag alders, and ferns, mingled with poison ivy. Mr. Brewster (1925) describes two, of several, nests found near Umbagog Lake, Maine, as follows:

One, containing four eggs, incubated perhaps as many days, was in
the face of a low mound partially overarched by balsam shrubs
surrounded on every side by pools of water, and some 80 yards from
the lake shore near the middle of swampy, second-growth woods made
up chiefly of aspen, red cherry, and yellow birch trees, 20 or 30
feet in height, beneath which grew alders rather abundantly. The
female woodcock flew up from her eggs at least 15 feet in advance
of me, and whistling faintly soared off over the tree tops to be
seen no more. I flushed a male about 50 yards from this nest.

Of the other he says:

It was at the edge of a little fern-grown opening, on a mound
covered with brakes flattened and bleached by winter snows, beneath
a balsam scarce 2 feet high, and not dense enough to afford much
concealment for the eggs which, indeed, caught my eye when I was 15
feet away, there being no bird on them.

Mr. Trostler (1893) writes:

Finding a nest one day, I disturbed the setting bird three times,
and again four times on the next day, and on the morning of the
third day I found that the birds had removed the eggs during the
night and placed them in a new nest about 8 feet away, where I
found the eggs. I had marked the eggs to avoid any mistake. The
second nest was a mere hollow in the mossy ground, and was in the
middle of an open place in tall marsh grass, while the first was
neatly cupped and lined with the above-mentioned vegetable down.

Another singular habit of the woodcock that I have never seen noted
is that of both birds setting upon the nest in wet or cold weather.
In doing this they huddle very close together and face in opposite
directions, and I have always noted that they have their heads
thrown back and their bills elevated to an angle of about
forty-five degrees.

Mr. Nichols writes to me:

On Long Island there is a favorite nesting station for woodcock,
where the woodland gives place to broad fields, separated by narrow
stands of big trees with a sparse tangled undergrowth of shrubbery
and cat-brier, and where here and there a short fresh-water creek
extends inland from the not distant bay.

Several writers have stated or implied that the woodcock raises two broods in a season. This would be an exception to the rule among waders. I believe that it normally nests early and that the late nests are merely second attempts at raising a brood, where the first nest has been destroyed.

An interesting case of nest-protecting display is thus described by Dr. Robert Cushman Murphy (1926):

She (assuming that it was the female) would allow us to come within
a few feet before leaving her well-concealed position. Then she
would spring from the nest, pitch on the ground close by, and,
standing with the tail toward us, would raise and spread it so as
to show to full advantage the double row of glistening white spots
at the ends of the rectrices and under coverts. Next, flashing this
striking banner slowly, she would move off among the trees in the
attitude of a strutting turkey cock, stopping when we refused to
follow, and then tripping ahead for a few steps, all the while
bleating softly. The effect was astonishing; the ordinary low
visibility of a woodcock against the forest floor no longer held,
for the spotted fan of the tail had become a most conspicuous and
arresting mark.